h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Will use this journal as a way to keep track of my progress.

LCHF stands for Low Carb High Fat.

The carbs you cut down on are bread, rice, potatoes, pasta etc. and also fruit and root vegetables.

I'm cheating a little, because oranges are so at this time of year. Am also taking vitamine supplements to compensate for not eating fruits.

Fat: mostly saturated fat.

Several months ago, I switched unsaturated fats for saturated fat, and the effects were the following:

1. When I used to try to keep down my intake of fat my body hysterically tried to over-compensate it - hair needed washing several times each week, facial skin was very mixed from dry to fat, and the pores on my nose were huge, and I could regularly squeeze big, fat, black worms out of them. After a couple of weeks of eating saturated fat, my hair only needed washing once a week (if even that), and the pores on my nose didn't fill up and, as a result, shrank a lot in size. You can hardly see them now unless you look really, really close.

2. No weight gain.

3. Several months later, it was time for the annual health check at w*rk. My total cholesterol level was perfect, and the balance between HDL and LDL couldn't have been better.

I started this diet on New Year's Day 2010.

Despite having a lapse on 10 January (candy, beer, crisps) I have lost around 2 cms around my waist so far (haven't bothered to weigh myself since my weight can differ quite a lot from day to day because of my edema problems).

After dinner on 11 January, I began feeling very warm around 20-30 minutes after I had finished eating. This was a bit odd since I was sat at my computer, which is the point in my flat furthest away from any heating source and I usually have to dress a bit warmer before sitting down there.

This feeling of warmth was repeated after breakfast today 12 January, after lunch (but I won't count that since I spent a lot of the day at w*rk filling archive boxes), and then again tonight, after dinner.

Not sure what this is a sign of, but I don't think it's ketosis, because I don't get a metallic taste in my mouth, and my breath doesn't smell either. It might be possible that the diet is doing something to my metabolism, but that's just pure guessing.

Whatever the reason, it's nice to feel warm from the inside when it's could outside

Meals usually consist of:

Protein (red meat, chicken, fish, shrimps)

Fat (butter, sour cream, full fat cream, mayonnaise)

Limited amount of Carbs (current favourite coleslaw, hold the carrots, but also baby spinache, ruccola, tomatoes, fresh green asparagus, mashed cooked broccoli or cauliflower mixed with cream etc)

The coleslaw is so delicious I feel in danger of overeating carbs. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1 finely sliced (or chopped, if you prefer that) red onion
plenty of ground black pepper
freshly squashed lemon juice
salt if needed according to taste

Mix all ingredients together and taste to see of you need to add more of something. Then add

finely sliced white cabbage

Tastes even better after a day or two in the fridge.

If you're going down the middle of the road on the carbs, 1 portion is 100 grams. Need to weigh my coleslaw to see how much that actually is.

I'm glad you've started this. as you know, I think saturated fat has gotten a bum rap and isn't unhealthy at all. Like you, I feel a lot better when I eat a higher fat diet.

This is a bit indelicate, but have you noticed that when you go to the bathroom, there is no odor at all on a high fat diet? And certainly no constipation. Eating fat works better than a laxative.

Heh, don't worry, I've never had a problem discussing poo

Still a bit constipated on and off, but I think that's because of my potassium deficiency.

When I first started on saturated fats I seem to remember that yes, it was soft and light (no 'break' marks as we say in Sweden) and didn't smell.

Also light in colour as well.

Well, some folks you can talk poo with and some you can't.

Like you, when I eat more fat my skin is much better. And I just feel better. All of my food problems come from carbs.

I think the reason people think saturated fat causes heart disease is because they fail to take into consideration that most people eat it with loads of carbs. It's the combination of the fat with sugar, grains and starchy vegetables that create the problems. But the mecdical establishment has invested so much capital in saturated fat being evil that they can't look at the situation objectively.

The poo sort of floats.

I'm on a Whiskey diet




















lost 3 days already

Good for you, Ti

Personally, I'm more on a sea food diet - when I see food, I eat it

To be serious, we do not diet as such in this household - but we do try to eat reasonably varied and, especially, not in huge amounts. This doesn't actually come hard - we are "small" eaters. In any case, it works fine.

Santra

Same feeling of warmth after breakfast this morning, so I seem to have started off *something*, just not sure what. Was too tired to busy myself with making an omelette or scrambled eggs, so instead I had two slices of coldsmoked salmon with freshly squeezed lemon juice and coleslaw.

I know I certainly feel the cold more when I am dieting, it isn't a coincidence that everyone starts wanting to eat stodgy stuff as the nights draw in.

Eating plans are so individual, and it shouldn't really surprise anyone that what works for some doesn't work for others. I tried an Atkins approach for a while and was ready to mug an old lady for an apple by the end of the second week so it doesn't suit me at all. A calorie-controlled diet that incorporates lots of veg is what works for me and that is generally low in fat, but I tend to prefer to have a small amount of 'proper' fats than a larger amount of 'low' fat stuff as part of that.

Hope it continues to go well for you Ti

i am on the german FDH diet ( = friss die hälfte)

five years ago i forbade myself to touch alcohol until i had lost my 21 kilos overweight. only took me six months - but then i also ate and w*rked out sensibly. i am on the verge of trying that again. only this time i 'only' have to lose 15 kilos

I think I'll also use this journal to collect articles about high fat diets:

High fat diet can dramatically reduce epilepsy seizures:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/15/healthandwellbeing.medicalresearch

I still do best on my alternate day plan. I just feel better when I eat this way. But since I've developed all these food problems, I have to be careful which foods I choose. Lots of supposedly "healthy" foods make me ill. Grains containing gluten in particular and soy. I feel best when I eat protein, fat and low-carb veggies. I can get away with things like rice and potatoes in moderation, but if I eat very much of them I feel really sluggish and just want to sleep.

I recommend the books and articles by Barry Groves to people interested in a high fat diet.

Would buckwheat kasha be any good to you Hyp? It's said to be pretty hypounallegenic. Likewise, I think, quinoa. Also, sweet potatoes are an alternative to potatoes which my diabetic rellies swear by, altghough that's a blood sugar thing of course.

Sol, buckwheat is gluten-free, so I can have it. And I love quinoa. I use it in place of rice quite a bit.

Another recommendation for people wanting to learn about high fat diets is the film "Fat Head". It's entertaining and informational.

http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Head-Tom-Naughton/dp/B001NRY6R2

Lunch: chicken, coleslaw

Snack: 1 orange, a slice of Feta cheese, some almonds

Dinner: grilled fresh tuna with sauce Béarnaise and what was left of the coleslaw

Tried asking about the warm feeling at a forum for other Swedes on the LCHF diet. One of them thought it might be a sign of my body 'burning off' the extra energy ingested instead of storing it (on a low fat diet, that's most probably what my body would try to do).

Am also beginning to experience having more energy and feeling more 'up-beat'.

The warm feeling you're experiencing is really interesting. Is it a pleasant warm or an unpleasant, hot-flash one?

A pleasant feeling of glowing deep inside ending up with me being warm all over, including fingers and toes. Not hot, just warm.